The present invention relates to systems and methods for determining the lowest cost transaction scheme, and more particularly to determining lowest transaction cost scheme based on the merchant type, the transaction amount and the fees associated with various transaction schemes. In one aspect, the invention is particularly useful where a least cost transaction is determined and a customer is prompted to tender a transaction using the least cost transaction.
Due to increased share of electronic transactions in the marketplace, the cost and volume of such transactions have become a concern for merchants and processors. In performing commercial electronic transactions, merchants and processors have many networks from which to choose, each associated with various transactional costs and fees that may depend on, at least, such things as bank identification number (BIN), the standard industry classification (SIC) code associated with the vendor, and/or the transaction amount. Vendors and merchants are at the mercy of their customers who may choose to tender a transaction with a high cost transaction scheme that is more expensive to the merchant than other schemes.
Consequently, there is a need for improved systems and methods for determining the transaction processing scheme that incurs the lowest cost to the merchant.